


Yet To Crack

by GlassXelhua



Category: Bodyguard (TV 2018), Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: BAMF Eggsy Unwin, BAMF Harry Hart, BAMF Merlin (Kingsman), BAMF OFC, BAMF Roxy Morton, Canon Compliant In Places, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Physical Abuse, Physical Disability, Physical hurt/comfort, Platonic Relationships, but Merlin lived and so did Roxy, let's face it they're all BAMF, mention of abusive relationships, romantic relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:40:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 9,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25443283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlassXelhua/pseuds/GlassXelhua
Summary: "This girl's connections make her more likely to sprint down the Valentine path than walk down the Kingsman road.""Let's change that then,  shall we?""Well, as it happens, we might have a chance to. It seems we'll need her godfather quite a bit, only here's the thing. David Budd has gone missing."
Relationships: David Budd & Gary "Eggsy" Unwin, David Budd & OFC, David Budd/Gary "Eggsy" Unwin, Eggsy Unwin & OFC, Harry Hart | Galahad & Gary "Eggsy" Unwin, Harry Hart | Galahad/Merlin, Merlin & Gary "Eggsy" Unwin, OFC & OFC, OFC & OMC
Comments: 11
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

"Shit shit shit shit SHIT!" The source of the profanity gashed her knee while running. She skimmed around garbage bins and stumbled over debris. "SHIT!" She carried on running while her legs screamed at her for doing it. Her breath was running out of her mouth quickly from not stopping to get it back. Her vision started hazing but she still ran until her legs screamed their loudest curse yet and gave out. Conveniently, this was just as someone crossed the corner.

"What the hell're you doing to her?" Was that a velvet suit? Rosanna looked up at them as Derek answered.

"What the hell's it got to do with you?"

"Considering she just collapsed at my feet, I'd say quite a lot! So what. Were you. Doing?" Rosanna knew by their voice, it was about to go down. 

"Why don't you shut up and shove off?!" Derek was diving in to that hot water like the idiot he always was. Whoever was standing over Rosanna half snorted.

"If you think that's tough talk, we ain't lived in the same place bruv" Were they smiling? Their voice kept going from elegant to what was normal on Rosanna's street. Wait, what the hell-?! "Now leave her alone an' I'll stop aimin it." The silence indicated that Derek and his little gang of merry men were still trying to act like they didn't wet themselves during Jaws. Rosanna's neck had the mother of cricks in it from the position she'd landed in. "Get. Out." 

Then she could swear in a court that she heard a gunshot before whoever the hell it was bent down to her. 

"Christ, you've definitely broken something. I'll get you to Harry's, it's close."

Eggsy drew himself back before she could punch him. 

"Who's Harry?!"

"I just saved your arse!" He watched the girl give up under the hold Roxy had taught him. She breathed out while her legs twitched a little from fatigue. 

"I'm tired..." Rosanna mumbled it and closed her eyes on top of a complete stranger's arms. 

Eggsy switched the feed on his glasses back to active and spoke to a tech wizard. "Merlin, I've got a bit of a problem..." Thankfully Merlin hadn't left yet, 'needing' to spend 'five' more minutes on the latest hand grenade. Rosanna looked for a weapon when she woke up in another stranger's house with her father having been lied to about where she was.


	2. Chapter 2

"We are simply asking for your name" Harry had had substantial practice in remaining calm in these situations. To elaborate, situations where someone was completely freaking out and yelling various profanities while doing so. Only, Rosanna, was searching for a weapon as soon as she registered the fact that she was in an utter stranger's house. "I'm afraid I removed all possible improvised weaponry while you were asleep. I've been told you once beat a man to death with a closed umbrella"

"Jesus Christ..." Eggsy let it slip from his lips since she couldn't attack him for it. Rosanna was standing up on Harry's sofa and looking around wildly.

"If this is about my dad's money, I swear I can pay it off!" She watched Eggsy step forward and wait for her reaction before coming any closer to her.

"Relax, all right? It's all right. I'll swear right now we're not going to hurt you. Now listen to us, cause where I'm stand-in', you ain't got much choice. I swear. We won't hurt you". He watched Rosanna stay in the same stance and Harry chose to cut in.

"You can trust Eggsy, he's very much from your neck of the woods" Rosanna nodded and relaxed enough to put her guard back up if she needed to.

"Then where. The shit. Am I?" Her stomach then chose to feel the aftermath of Derek and his merry men. "And where the hell's your bin?" She clutched her torso and mouth but still vomited on Harry's rug. Eggsy winced and she started apologising so quickly you'd have thought there was a fist or a bullet aimed at her mouth. Harry stayed completely calm again. 

"I'll have it washed and dry cleaned" It would've been impossible to tell he was slightly disturbed by the sight of a young girl vomiting her guts up due to the repeated blows to her stomach along with her face and ribs. They were severely damaged but not broken, and Merlin had cleaned the blood off of her nose and mouth while she was unconscious. Rosanna started apologising again until Eggsy reiterated for Harry;

"It's all right! It's only a rug an' he's got hundreds, ain't you, guv?" Eggsy grinned a little and watched Merlin go and fetch a mop and bucket from Harry's cupboard. Merlin had handled situations like this often enough to know where everything was in every agent's house. Most recently in Roxy's after her first actually gory end to a mission. He came back with the equipment and helped Rosanna step down without stepping in her own sick.

"I don't get paid enough for this" He muttered it quietly enough that Rosanna couldn't hear him. Then she apologised again and Harry calmed her.

"It's perfectly alright. It's a natural reaction to the injuries you've sustained. Which, coincidentally, is what we wish to discuss with you." 

"Oh, sorry-" Rosanna rolled her eyes at herself and muttered, then gestured to Merlin. "I mean, thanks and everything, but I was talking to him." She watched Merlin's cleaning stop and tried to smile at him but ended up grimacing at her own vomit on the rug. "I don't think anyone can get paid enough for this." Even in a frat house where it was more frequent than at home. Merlin looked at her and back at his colleagues. He turned back to Rosanna and half stated, half asked;

"You can lip read"


	3. Chapter 3

"You can lip read"

"Is that honestly so weird?" She looked at Merlin and tilted her head. "Is it?" 

"Not at all, I'm just wondering why and where you learned to" He flicked through his tablet and showed her. "There's no record of anyone deaf in your family so why would you learn it?" Merlin was trained alongside Harry to remain calm when people started laughing hysterically and high enough for your eardrums to bleed. Eggsy winced but otherwise was getting there. Rosanna doubled over with laughter and straightened up again.

"Looks like your research didn't tell you everything." She moved her hair back on the right side and even the deceptively calm Kingsmen reacted. They only blanched a little for around two seconds but Eggsy saw it and Rosanna noticed as well. "Not pretty is it?" Her voice was like a snarl. "Derek did that the first time I punched him. Stupid bastard can't take what he gives out." She let her hair drop back over her ear again. "He's honestly just a princess." Harry chose to cut in now that the topic had been introduced.

"We were actually planning to discuss that with you. Why exactly was he hunting you down in that fashion?" He wasn't ready for the shrug and the casual answer.

"Because it's Friday." Every Friday they started counting to nine and watched her run. More often than not, they all got one over on her. On the few times she found the right alleyway, they'd waited her out for three hours before leaving her to stay there for the night. She'd grabbed a bottle of beer and gone past a coffee shop on the way back home before they started the count. Harry looked at Rosanna and his voice reacted a little bit.

"You're saying... that every Friday... they do this?"

"They hunt you like a dog? That is fucked. Up." Eggsy didn't restrain his language when something was as messed up as this. It was hardly Valentine or Poppy level, but hunting someone for sport was literally ripped from one of the villains in Game Of Thrones. Ripped right from fiction it was so screwed up. "Sorry Harry" Eggsy looked at him but Harry just smiled calmly for Rosanna's sake and Merlin pointed out;

"I think all three of us have to confess we've said worse" His Scottish twang seemed to resonate with Rosanna since her whole posture relaxed at hearing the sentence. Eggsy watched her.

"You all right there?" Rosanna nodded and then shook herself out of it. She looked around for a weapon again and gave up. She reached into her pocket but Harry had searched her when she was asleep and removed the window pane fragment she always carried there. Eggsy's eyebrows lifted in an arch when Rosanna reached under her top and pulled out a razor blade from under one of her bra straps. She looked back at the remainder of the room and unfolded it. 

"What. Do you have to do. With me?" Then Merlin chose to drop the bombshell. 

"Your cousin was a filthy piece of work wasn't he? Needed mopping up with extra soap" He let Rosanna explode the room when she answered;

"So what? Charlie's dead"


	4. Chapter 4

"Close your mouth please Eggsy, we've talked about this" Harry tapped him under his chin and Eggsy closed it. Although he shot Harry a glare while doing so.

"Don't be petulant Eggsy" Merlin looked at him and Rosanna snorted.

"What're you, his dads or something?" She watched Merlin's reaction and remembered her own question. "What's Charlie got to do with you?" Eggsy put both hands up and stepped backwards before telling her.

"Yours truly killed him. In my defence I thought he'd killed Merlin and nearly the whole world" He kept his hands raised but Merlin cut in for him.

"Believe me, he's not exaggerating. He has several tells when he does that" Rosanna kept her razor blade up high enough but her voice cracked.

"What's my piece of shit cousin got to do with anything?! What the fuck is going on?! JUST TELL ME!" Her voice reached a shrieking pitch but it sounded broken. As if she was pleading and scared, which made Eggsy realise, that with reason, she was terrified. She'd woken up in a different house with three men who seemed to know everything about her without having met her before one of them played White Knight. Harry's eyes locked with Merlin's when the tech magician stepped forward with his tablet. 

"Put the razor blade down and I'll let you look up everything about us. My name is Hamish Adan and I promise we're not going to hurt you."

"Then what the hell have you got to do with me?!" Rosanna was still terrified and it showed through in her voice. Merlin watched the razor blade lower and then rise again and explained.

"We think Charlie left a legacy. Which he was the Chester King of" He heard Eggsy's brain reeling back before he said anything.

"He was running his own Kingsman?" Eggsy watched as Harry reacted more openly than he'd seen him do before, discounting when he'd tracked down Charlie's corpse just to kick it seven times over when they'd thought that Merlin was dead. Harry had gone full blown psycho, kicking, punching and slitting Charlie's corpse in several places. 

"Hamish... please tell me you can't be certain that that's what Charlie's been doing" He watched Merlin's eyes fall without moving and knew the answer.

"I'm afraid I've got evidence. Which I think your godfather has more of" They watched Rosanna's face change to match the razor blade that she was lowering.

"What's happened to him? If you're not certain when you seem to know almost my entire life history, something's happened. What's. Happened?" Merlin aimed the next sentence at all three of them and took the blade out of Rosanna's hand.

"Sergeant David Budd has gone missing"


	5. Chapter 5

"Davie's gone missing?" Rosanna's voice was quiet and bordered on breathless. She looked so small that if she hadn't been holding a razor blade up, Eggsy would have pulled her into his chest and held her tight. Rosanna stared for a little and her voice was just as small when she opened her mouth again. "When?" Merlin checked his tablet and looked back at her.

"According to these reports, he was last seen two weeks ago"

"Two... weeks." Rosanna's eyes turned into stone daggers and she put her blade away. "Where was he?" She looked ready to slit someone's throat and kick it inwards. "Where's Davie?" Merlin stepped closer to her and answered.

"He was last seen in Berlin in a charity shop that was closed down four years ago" Valentine had endorsed it and several staff members had killed each other during the psychotic rage that his signal had introduced into everyone's system. Merlin flicked further down on his laptop. "Now the last two people who entered that shop after him were Dean Baker and Derek Michaels." Derek had gone on holiday to Berlin and Rosanna had been glad to get a break from him. She picked up a pillow, apologised, and then punched it seven times over until the dent was close to being a hole. 

"I'm gonna slit his bloody throat. I'M GONNA SLIT HIS BLOODY JUGULAR OPEN!" She breathed in and out and looked Eggsy. "I'm not usually like this, I swear" Usually it was vastly more frequent. She dug out her phone. "Yeah, Dad? We're going on a sort of tour, I only just heard about it. I'll call you every day papa, swear it. I really can't leave this to chance, and if you call me I'll come right back, I promise. I'm going to stay with Davie." Rosanna's voice changed and she looked desperate "No, papa, you didn't do anything, I swear! I just want to visit- papa you didn't do anything! Pap-" She looked back at the Kingsmen when the line broke off. "Did I mention I have a crap family life?" Her voice was small again and Eggsy didn't restrain himself. She leaned back in surprise at the hug but then buried her face in his shoulder. "I need my Davie so much...!" Eggsy smiled and tried to restrain his voice from cracking.

"It gets so much better, swear down." He tried to smile when he pulled away. "It gets better"

He'd beaten the crap out of Dean before, he could a second time, and he'd gone vigilante-for-hire against abusive family members. Harry watched them and cleared his throat.

"Heartwarming as this is, Eggsy, and it is, believe me, we do have a mission to make a start on." He looked at Merlin and waited for the tablet to come out again.

"Right, well, first thing to do is get you two to Berlin. Harry, you'll all need fake identities but you will need a fake backstory, if people ask how you lost one eye. They never just let it be" Merlin's voice let through a slight bite in the last sentence and he re-controlled himself. "Looking at the fact we have no idea what Charlie's Circle was like, or who's in it, let alone how David Budd found out, I'd say it's best we started now" Rosanna looked at him sheepishly like she was the age she should have been able to live as.

"Sorry again that you had to clean up... that."

"It's alright, really. It's fine" Rosanna nodded but still added towards him and Harry "And about the dads comment. I didn't mean-" This time Harry cut in with;

"It's quite alright. You've been through a substantial experience within the last three hours. I'm quite impressed at how you're handling it." He watched Rosanna's eyes light up a little and smiled. "And I can assure you I'm being honest"

"Thank you." 

Now to find Davie and hunt Derek. 

Rosanna reacted like Eggsy had when they showed her Kingsman's weaponry.


	6. Chapter 6

"This- this is a hand grenade?! What the actual-?!"

"Yes, thank you, we don't condone that language here" Harry cut her off before Rosanna could add to the list of expletives that she had used so far. Rosanna waved him off, which was surprisingly unappreciated, and turned back to the hand grenades before looking at the pens. 

"Huh. They always say poison is a woman's weapon" She turned to face Merlin. "Do you make these...?" She was caressing an umbrella like it was cat's fur and glancing back at it. "Cause I'm not being a suck up, these are all sick..." Merlin hesitated

"Eggsy?" 

"Yeah, it's good guv, means it's cool" Eggsy smiled a bit at the fact he was translator for Merlin and Rosanna. Merlin looked at her and smiled a little.

"Thank you then. Now, no pun intended, pick your poison" They watched her giggle a little and choose the umbrella, the hand grenade and to leave the pen. This was so messed up to giggle about but her eyes had lit up and it was endearing. At the same time as being incredibly disturbing. Rosanna skimmed the hand grenade with one fingernail and looked over each angle of it. "You know Davie destroyed my first smoke. Saw me trying it and ground it through the floor". She smiled a little. "Please say we can. get him back alive." Merlin watched Harry battling himself and saw his good eye give in.

"Professionally I shouldn't but I will." He breathed "I promise you" Harry paused and glanced from Rosanna to Eggsy, then cleared his throat. "Now, Merlin, I believe you have a plane to pilot"

"Indeed, Skipper" Merlin smirked a little at Harry's reaction, then tracked down the plane. Eggsy sat next to Rosanna. 

"Berlin, here we go. An' David, here we come. I swear right now we'll get him back". 

"Is it just me or do you see a lot of those two in each other as well?" Harry waited for Merlin to check everything before he answered.

"They're practically clones of each other, that's easy to see" Merlin checked everything again and got ready for take off, which he did from his tablet since enabling it but remained in the cockpit for to see any malfunctions before being alerted. 

"You know it truly is ingenious. I know I've never... said it before, although I'm not quite sure why-" Harry regained his own sentence and tried to finish it "But it's only since both of our deaths that I've-" Merlin cut into his sentence before he could extend it;

"Thank you, Galahad." He turned to his tablet to monitor the plane's path and safety. 

David Budd emptied the blanks from his gun and loaded it.


	7. Chapter 7

"You ready, Minute?" David took the loud bark as an affirmative and emptied the blanks from his gun, then loaded it. "You stay here til I call for you, ok?" He got a growl in response but Minute stayed there. David stepped nearer to the corner view slowly and kept his gun just below his eyes. He surveyed the surroundings and Minute didn't bark behind him so he kept on proceeding. He aimed his gun around the corner and shot a round into the air. David watched Dean Baker come out to check what was happening. "Good boy... just a few more paces..." David fired into his leg and clamped Dean down with one foot. "What the hell is going on here? I see some poor girl and her father get dragged in by you and your goons, I hear arguing and then I hear him scream, you're not going to tell me that's a coincidence, so what's. Going. On?" David held his gun so the bullet would hit Dean between the eyes and go through the bridge of his nose. It was an incredibly gory way to die, as one of his regime had found out in Afghanistan. "I think you better answer me" Dean Baker laughed and looked around him.

"I don't have to do fuck, you're surrounded mate" He saw David tilt his head and pull the trigger back. 

"Nice try but I've played cards a thousand times and you're shit at it. Your tell is too obvious, mate" God it was cliché but God it felt good using their own terms on them. Pieces of filth like Baker were a disgrace. Beating their wives, beating and threatening their stepson and enabling their biological family to abuse drugs while they paid him for them. It made complete sense that he'd be involved in something like this. "These aren't blanks, you know" David kept his foot on Dean's stomach and shifted his weight on it. "What's going on?"

"Fine, fine. Have you heard of Kingsman? Hesketh was obsessed with it, and this is our version"

"You really are an absolute coward" David lifted his foot up and slammed it back down. "MINUTE!" He heard the ever loyal companion practically galloping to him and took his foot off of Dean's stomach. "Now if you'll excuse her, my dog's going to maul your face off" 

He kept the gun trained between Dean's eyes so that he couldn't hurt her. 

Eggsy and Rosanna stepped off of the plane while David yanked Minute off and started leaving. They tracked down a safe house at around the time he started to run.

"Any idea where your godfather would go?" Merlin watched Rosanna's lip go under her teeth and then her eyes went clear.

"He'd choose somewhere near to the charity shop and get known there"

"But he wouldn't be living there?" Merlin watched Rosanna's eyes matching her mouth with the pride in them.

"Oh he's a hell of a lot smarter than that"

When he reached the second apartment he'd chosen, David pulled his laptop out and accessed Dean Baker's personal pages.  
"Now to find out who hasn't met him yet, ey?" David smiled when Minute licked his hand, then he grimaced and picked her up. "First let's get that blood off of your fur" He received a growl for that but Minute had gone for Dean's neck, not his face, and had gone to town on it. That was probably the only neck bite a piece of dirt like that filth would receive. 

David almost started crooning when he was scrubbing the blood out of Minute's fur. She looked up at him like he was Judas but she couldn't stay mad. Minute nuzzled him and tried to jump on him whilst still sopping wet and soaking each surface. Shoot the dog. What a fucked up test that'd been. He should've passed it when he fired at Chester King's shoulder instead, but no, he got dragged out.

Minute barked and licked his hand again.


	8. Chapter 8

"So Davie was outside the charity shop yesterday with Minute" Rosanna watched the tablet and turned away quickly at the sight of what Minute had managed to do to Dean Baker's neck. "So who's the girl and father? Knowing Charlie's connections they will have shot or tortured one of them in front of the other". Rosanna sounded sick so often at all of this that it was uncertain if she should really be there. Eggsy didn't want to have changed her if she couldn't handle it. That would ld be more likely to send her down the Valentine or Poppy path than the Kingsman one or the normal one. Whatever normal was. Eggsy zoned back in on the conversation but Merlin could tell he'd zoned out in the first place. He let it slide and kept talking; 

"This was around Saturday according to CCTV footage. Disappearances before then..." Merlin flicked through the notices on his tablet and found it. "These two are more likely to be connected with whatever Charlie's Circle is doing. Olenna Hiralt and her father James. James is professor of politics and philosophy, and Olenna is studying forensics at the crime scene house in Keele. Both went missing around Thursday." 

"Where's Davie?" Rosanna looked at them. "Ok yes, I'm a little desperate to find him but if you knew him, trust me, you'd know why! And besides that, more importantly for you, he'll know a fuck load more than we do. Two disappearances and CCTV footage isn't going to do shit without more to go on." Her tendency towards expletives returned a little more with frustration at their predicament. "I get it, you're fucking spies, you've shown me shit hot gadgets, but this? This is the equivalent of looking for Valentine through whatever chain restaurant he preferred!" Rosanna's exasperation showed through like fingerprints in her voice. "We know they disappeared around Thursday, but we don't know where from, or if they worked out whatever the fuck was probably happening and tried to leave. This. Is nothing. To go on. If you really need to hear it again, we need. Davie. One man asking after two people persistently is weird enough, but three more people doing the same thing..." She sounded speechless for two seconds and regained her tongue again; "I'd be tracking them down" 

It was half annoying but she was right.

"And don't say fuck to me about a chip on my shoulder." Rosanna looked at Merlin when she said it. "Charlie was a prick and a nosy twat, and he had no problem running his mouth" He'd sulked all of a fortnight after failing the train track test, and his stupid dog had kept on snarling whenever he mentioned it. Rosanna replayed the memory like a rewind in her head. "Oh my god, how the fuck am I such a cliché?!" She grabbed Merlin's tablet and handed it back to him, digging her phone out instead and beating her foot on the ground while it loaded. She waited until the app opened and logged in. "Minute has a micro sized chip in her collar. It's a loose collar, don't worry" Harry smiled at the fact that Rosanna cared about that. She kept on talking and a map came up on her phone. "I planted it in the front when Davie was out." She'd been staying at his house for a weekend and his episodes had been getting worse. He'd ended up throwing his gun out of the window after nearly firing at her. Minute had stood in front of her and had kept on barking to remind Davie it was her. 

His eyes had been terrified when he snapped out of it. 

Rosanna tapped the icon. 

"Where's this building?" She turned to Merlin and shifted his tablet further into his hands apologetically. She sounded like she expected him to deny her everything. "Could you search it?" She said it half meekly and looked at him. Her eyes were like a child's. Or one even younger than. her. Merlin restrained his surprise at her mood swing and nodded.

"Of course" He sounded gentle because he needed to be. 

Rosanna was volatile but not dangerous yet. 

Minute and therefore David, was in an apartment two hours away from the charity shop.


	9. Chapter 9

"GET THIS THING OFF OF ME! YOU'RE KILLING ME!" Minute cut into the screaming with a bark and nuzzled David's head. He scrambled for his gun and she pawed his hand. Minute had surprisingly big paws which was why no one else had picked her. She kept one paw over David's hand until he calmed down but his shoulders kept shaking and he screamed one last time. 

He had to feel his entire torso and click his thumb and finger together.

You're not still in it. Your thumb is completely free. Look down at it. Feel your torso. Feel your back, your shoulders, your waist, feel your chest.  
You're ok.  
You're not ok but you're ok.

Minute licked his hand and climbed up onto the bed. She curled into his side and David patted her. He ruffled her ears and she nuzzled him, laying her head on his chest and looking at him. 

David breathed and counted the seconds each time. He put one hand against his chest and kept on ruffling Minute's fur. 

She kept lying on him and stayed still.

You're not ok but you're not there. What did you tell Charlie?

Crying shows weakness. God, he couldn't apologise enough for that. It was a warped and unhealthy message to encrypt into a child's brain. He'd let Charlie cry now. Whenever he needed to, he cried. He cried on Daddy's shoulder. David hugged Minute closer to him without crushing her and buried his nose in her fur. 

"Oh shit-!" David scrambled off of the bed and pushed Minute behind him. "I'm sorry girl, I'm sorry, but just stay quiet..." Minute growled and battled to in front of him. "Minute!" David chased her while trying to keep low. "Minute! Come here!" He tried to coax her without his voice rising, but she trotted towards where the door had been unlocked with an improvised lock pick. He ran for his gun and tracked the next movement. Minute was following the scent but he kept the gun trained. "Freeze! I said freeze! FREEZE!" His voice had taken over and the panic was seeping through. David's tears were still drying and he'd been found. 

"I'm unarmed!" A London voice, like Rosanna's. David choked back the remaining fear to shake off the dream. The memory.

"Why're you here?!" Keep the gun trained, keep your guard up. 

"I'm here for you! Shit that sounded wrong, I didn't mean that-" 

Get some control back and keep your gun trained. Pull the trigger back and let them hear it.

"Switch on the light or I'll fire" David kept his voice level as self preservation kicked in. You don't show fear, you show control. You show them they're the ones on the defensive.

"Ok, but I swear I won't hurt you, all right? Swear to me you won't fire" The London voice was calmer than his and if they were panicking they were pretty good at hiding it. Impressively good even, although he'd appreciate it more if he knew who they were. And hadn't just woken from one nightmare into another. The worst case scenario was going to loop in his head in figures of eight, the bile was rising already and he was fighting it. 

Then the light came on and they were younger than him and in a bespoke suit. Eggsy kept his hands in the air and turned around a little. 

"Look at me, yeah. No hidden holster, no blade bruv, I've got nothing" His voice was gentle and David's guard went up. "Swear down, I won't hurt you. That's not what I'm here for" David looked him over for a tell and lowered his guard an inch. "Cute dog." Minute liked that. "She a Border Collie?" The curiosity was fond enough for him to ruffle Minute's ears. David lowered his gun without pocketing it. 

"Half Border Collie actually. Half something fluffier. And. absowutewy adowable!" Rosanna was cupping Minute's face. She looked at David and pushed Minute back to him. "I can swear right now Galahad won't shoot you"

One.  
Two.  
Th-

The dam burst and Rosanna bowled him over. She sob-laughed onto his shoulder and kept clinging to him. 

"Why the hell would you go amateur sleuth again?" She whispered it in his ear and David held her.

"We're both here now." He tried to laugh when he added; "Thank god it was you!" He turned over his gun and it was lighter. Rosanna choked a little and kept hugging him. 

"Heartwarming as this is, guv, we've got business to do." Eggsy was grinning towards the shadows. "Isn't that how you'd phrase it Harry?"


	10. Chapter 10

Eggsy watched David's fingers pushing the gun as far away from himself as possible and took it from him, then nodded. He'd felt the same as David numerous times after gory missions. You wanted to throw your gun through the window and lock the door. He put the gun behind him as Merlin tried to explain Kingsman to David while Rosanna played with Minute and cooed at her. Minute was pretty large and incredibly fluffy, and kept on sticking by David. She seemed to have assumed (correctly) that they were Rosanna's friends but was still watching them with hawk. eyes that would have been intimidating on a dog whose tail didn't wag like a chronic problem. 

"You ok bruv?" Eggsy looked at him and David shook his head.

"Haven't been in a while." He tried to laugh but Rosanna turned to him.

"Not since the vest..." She straightened his fingers and smiled at him. Eggsy remembered seeing it on Percival's screen. The older Knight had been looking at the news without moving. He'd gone white as a sheet at the sight of David Budd strapped into a suicide vest with a DMS. David had been screaming.

"YOU'RE KILLING ME!" 

That had haunted everyone who heard it. It was true that he could have been acting, but the terror on his face mixed with the blood and the fact he'd gone amateur sleuth had made it unlikely. Would the culprit lead the police to him? Eggsy refocused before his thoughts could start delving deeper. Merlin was explaining that Charlie had been running his own version of their organisation and they had no idea what the hell he had told his goons to carry on with even in the case of his death. David listened and his eyes stopped darting once he had something to think on. Eggsy watched him and groaned at his next words.

"I did some research and it's disgusting, I'm just going to warn you" His Scottish purr/twang came out more obviously and Rosanna dipped her head. David's voice calmed her down...

"So what did you find?" Merlin waited for it and David swallowed. "Take your time" Merlin listened to him regulating his breathing and Minute rested her head on David's lap so that he could stroke her. She nuzzled him and his breathing calmed to normal.

"It's... eugenics." 

The silence in the room was like a crater. 

"James Hiralt was working to round up everyone who advocated for eugenics so that he could do something. Only I don't think he was supporting it." James Hiralt had also been a scientist. It was how he had met his wife, which had been debated because of the power differential. Sadia had been two ranks above him in their field. Their field hadn't been disclosed though, only the difference in their rank. Shock, horror, that was disclosed by a rejected admirer. 

"So-" Harry swallowed just inaudibly but his Adam's apple had bobbed fairly visibly. "Charlie was interested in the opposite" 

Charlie had wanted to push eugenics forward. 

Rosanna blanched and Eggsy felt like his palms were going to bleed.

"I knew Charlie was an arsehole but this is a new level of fucked up"

It felt like that silence was still there.

Minute growled and it still was.

"Excuse me." Rosanna stood up. "Davie, where's the bathroom here?" She left to vomit at Charlie's potential aims. Eggsy followed her to hold her hair back.


	11. Chapter 11

"Eugenics..." Harry swallowed his reaction and kept his face plain. He looked at David and saw his hands twitching. "Do you have any idea as to what Charlie's 'goons' know to do?"

"Torture him. I heard screaming" David looked down. "I don't- I don't know though!" His voice was desperate until Minute nuzzled him again. 

"What don't you know?" Harry's voice was calm and seemed to combine with the effect of Minute soothing him. David breathed in and out, then answered again.

"I don't know what they'll get from him if he was completely against eugenics" 

"I think we can take a guess as to that" Merlin listened to Rosanna vomiting and heard her come back in. She wasn't cut out for this, her reactions were screaming that at them. He half ignored it and carried on. "If you wanted to eliminate a practice, you'd only gather all of its advocates for a few reasons. One of which would seem evident"

"Kill them" Rosanna's first words after re-entering the room didn't shock them but her voice was completely monotone when she said it. "You'd either kill them or brainwash them." Her eyes had gone hard and she was glaring at the older Kingsmen as if they'd just insulted her. "James Hiralt was completely against eugenics. Wiping out those who advocated it would be a form of eugenics in his eyes and in most people's. His daughter, sickeningly sweetly, is the light of his life. If they do too much to her they'll probably get a different reaction to what they expect. I'm not telepathic by the way but yeah... I can tell what you're thinking. I'll admit I have highly volatile moments, but I think I'm more cut out for anything to do with compassion, which, surprise fucking surprise, is a category this shit falls into-! Than-" She cut herself off. "Than someone who's had every fucked up moment in their life patched up. I did look you up when you let me." Rosanna looked at Merlin and looked down. "I know I'm exaggerating when I say 'every fuck up', but if you think I'm not cut out for this I can assure you you're wrong." 

She was squeamish, she was volatile, but she was right. Merlin could tell and pushed the pessimist out of his mind.

"I'm sorry." He didn't expect Harry to pick up the statement and continue it. 

"I like to believe I can admit when I've misjudged someone. I think your 'moments' as you call them, have been entirely natural responses. It's just that you're incredibly young and even Eggsy here was twenty four when I elected to train him. I suppose that... perhaps too quickly... we became protective of you" 

The silence ended like a cliff edge when Rosanna nodded. 

"I guess I'm half flattered. Half" She smiled slightly and then clarified. "I'm not a damsel, but I'm flattered that I grew on you that quickly" That and she would hold it over him for however long 'forever' was. She smiled even more widely when she found the chance to quote Harry. "Heartwarming as this is...I think we have some plots to foil" Rosanna grinned and Eggsy smiled at her. David had calmed down and was glowing at her right now. Eggsy kept on hoping that he wasn't staring.

Probably in vain because this guy was literally glowing with pride in his god daughter. 

This was Rosanna's moment and Eggsy's eyes were focused on David. 

He looked back at Rosanna and her grin lit the room.  
"Time to foil those plots?" She glanced over at Merlin and he brought out his tablet.  
"Indeed"


	12. Chapter 12

"Oh country roads... oh take me home... to a place... where I-" Rosanna looked up when Harry's nails carved into David's sofa. Her working ear made her wince and Merlin had looked over. He'd looked back down again but Rosanna had noted it. A flash of guilt and it was the agonising kind. The kind that you felt guiltier over letting people see. She walked over to him but left her headphones playing the music. Eggsy was explaining the umbrella gun to David before they went to town on anything/anyone. David was fascinated but not in the childish way that Rosanna had been. 

If you can call it childish to be fascinated with the intricacies and appearances of an array of potentially fatal weapons.

Let's just say that their reactions were different actually. 

They were different. 

There. 

Rosanna looked at Harry and back to Merlin before tapping him.  
"Can I help you?" Merlin grinned a little and Rosanna smiled.

"What's with the song?" She rolled her eyes a bit. "I wasn't born two days ago." She looked at him with begging eyes but begging to understand instead of dog begging. Rosanna drummed the tune on Merlin's desk/the table that Davie had reluctantly given over to his numerous laptops, tablets, speakers and concealable technologies that came as a package with Merlin himself, and Harry's nails carved further into the wood. She clicked the song off from her phone and disconnected the bluetooth. Merlin looked back at him and away simultaneously. Rosanna watched them. She was good at this. At merging into insignificance when she elected to. Merlin noticed her again when Harry had left. He pinched the bridge of his nose and spoke up again.

"What can I help you with?"

"I wasn't born two days ago. What memory does he associate the song with?"

"My supposed death" Merlin felt like his shoulders had sagged forwards when he caved in. Every time Harry or Eggsy heard that song he could see their reactions. Eggsy would grip his own hand to stay professional, and Harry's teeth were audible. Eggsy would look over at him but Harry would look away. Merlin smiled a little. Polar opposites yet the spitting image of each other. apart from Harry's eye. Rosanna had to tap him again and Merlin refocused. 

"I said... he isn't angry. I can tell. He's scared and possibly twisted over it but he's not angry. Even if he's shredded Davie's side table". She waited for Harry's re-entrance and got disappointed. "You... you look... sad. When you can't see him looking at you. When you think he can't see you. That's how I can tell." Her eyes were too deep for a fifteen year old's. Merlin looked at them and forced out an answer to that.

"Tell what exactly?"

"A shed load if I'm honest" Rosanna's voice was too compassionate. That sounded weird but she had an empathy she shouldn't have reached yet. She should've been awkward, fumbling with this, not knowing what to say, instead of knowing exactly how to act. Instead of giving off so much experience that he wanted to punch the people who gifted it. She looked at Merlin's screen and laughed. "That. Is a fucked up coping mechanism" The footage from Valentine's CCTV when half a million heads blew up. Rosanna swallowed a little to keep her rage down. They were dead so it was pointless. She refocused on Merlin and read his face. "Am I misinterpreting or are you having an epiphany?" Her voice went higher with excitement and Merlin shouted.

"Valentine! Harry! Valentine inserted signals into everyone, but where did the chips go?" He looked back at Harry after summoning him and Eggsy looked between them.

"So... someone collected them? That is rank." 

Someone had dug through the flesh and gore and beat the clean up to retrieve each one. Merlin keyed into his tablet and looked at the dates and stories that were passed over. 

Morgues had been raided, phones had been destroyed and gone missing, and the signals were being researched in hopes that weren't disclosed.

The chips, the research and the gathering spelt it out. Why invite people who advocate for the opposite cause of yours to one massive place? All their names would be down, their numbers, their addresses, everything you would need to locate them, kidnap them and... Jesus this man was a Valentine clone gone rogue on a better path. James Hiralt would have implanted the same type of or even the same chips inside the head of each eugenics advocate and brainwashed them to be repulsed by their cause. Eliminating their attitudes and saving god knows how many.

"Christ Harry, he had them lined up!" 

Eugenics advocates, anti vaccination protesters, hate groups by the fingernail, he'd arranged to meet them all. 

James Hiralt may have been overestimating his own experiment but he'd been aiming high and low. 

"This is what happens when nutters get tech happy" David looked at them in the right. Whatever intentions, the scheme was nuts. 

So they were saving a nut job from several. 

"Scuse me, I need to go yell"


	13. Chapter 13

"Scuse me, I need to go yell" David left the room and delivered on his promise. Rosanna listened to him and looked at Eggsy. He watched her mouthing 'please' and realised she didn't know. This was the one scenario she couldn't solve. How can a teenager, or realistically, a child. No matter how much she'd gone through, that was exactly what Rosanna was. What she should have been allowed to be. Eggsy followed David out after flashing a smile at her. He looked for a silhouette and found David by a stairwell. 

"You alright bruv? Probably a hell of a lot to deal with isn't it?" He felt his older accent slipping back into his taught one and David shifted.

"I'm just done with nutters" He didn't laugh while saying it and Eggsy felt something. 

"Ain't we all..." He shook his head clear to remind himself of why he followed David out in the first place. "Didn't answer my question. Are you alright bruv?" Eggsy's voice wasn't as gentle as with Rosanna but he felt more patient than he had in what was probably an unhealthy amount of time. He waited for David's answer and got what he predicted.

"Not completely" David sighed slightly and traced a pattern around the bannister. "Therapy hasn't prepared me enough... I don't honestly know what I'm doing here!"

"Calm down bruv-" David was spiralling and Eggsy kept his distance from it. If he tried to calm him down just like that he could end up in a tunnel and that felt crap. He watched David shake his head and try to clear himself.

"I ended up in a suicide vest last time I did this, but clearly I have a death wish because I'm in deep again. I'm- cavorting around with agents in suits and Rosanna- hell she's just a kid and why am I doing this?!" Eggsy watched him rambling and waited for the spiral to end. Once David started panting he took it as a sign. Merlin had taught him some breathing tricks after Valentine for when the full aftermath chose to hit them. David seemed to know them but just needed an extra chest doing it.

"Just copy me, yeah? Ok in for four... hold for six... out for four... in for four... hold for six... out for four- I feel like a stuck record saying this." Eggsy grinned a little and kept going. David copied him and a breath made him whistle when he smiled through it. "In for four... hold for-" Eggsy smiled a little when David turned fully to him. "Six..." He watched David watching him as if he was a yoga teacher and held back a grin. He'd look like a right prat if he smiled that much in this situation. David's eyes were still fixed on him when the breathing was more natural for both of them. Minute came trotting up to them and snuffed Eggsy's palm then barked. Eggsy laughed a bit when she nuzzled him again. He ruffled her ears and turned her around to send her to David. "She's a cute lil one." He watched David smile full on when Minute pawed at him. She barked again and went in for cuddles and David answered.

"She is and she knows it. And... thank you." 

David left it like that but Eggsy knew what he meant. It was obvious given what they'd just done. 

He still didn't know how to answer it.

He could smile again but he'd look like the Joker if he kept grinning this often.


	14. Chapter 14

"So Charlie's 'goons' advocate eugenics..." Rosanna trailed off and tried not to blanch. She looked around the room and echoed the unspoken: "What exactly are they going to do with the chips then?" She hesitated when Merlin cleared his throat.

"Well, unfortunately I think it's safe to say he was planning to execute the opposite" 

Turning more of the world towards their cause.

The silence hung for a while until he broke it again. 

"Seeing as we seem to know where they're based though that means we're able to dismantle that plan before it's carried-"

"But we still know shit!" Rosanna broke in and gripped her voice. "We still know next to nothing! How many goons he had, how many he still has when he's dead! How many guards there are, their level of training, whether they've clocked that we're onto them, we know nothing...! So send me in" Rosanna's face didn't change when she said it. "I won't need the glasses, I won't need the watch, I'll be a shadow" She tried to grin and then rolled her eyes and took her bracelet off, then pressed the side of it. She held up a finger and pressed the centre.

"We are simply asking for your name." 

Harry listened to his own voice and his lips quirked up.

"I'll admit we never thought of any recording jewellery"

"Neither did Charlie" Rosanna paused until her godfather cut in.

"Much as I trust you and I sort of have no choice in that, you can't just go into this blind. I've done that before and it hasn't ended well." David kicked back the memory of the vest when his thumb twitched. Minute licked him and Eggsy watched it. Rosanna stood proud like the heroine in a romance action novel.

"I've done it before and saved the world bruv" Eggsy tilted his head towards the duo and conceded. "But I have to agree. It was madly stressful. Since we know nothing though... I don't think we've got time for recon." He gave in to saying it and watched David's reaction. "This shit has to be put out now" He kept the eye contact up and David's eyes seemed to change. "How much info did you get before we got here?" Eggsy watched David pause and swallow a little before answering. 

"Not nearly as much as I'd like. You might not have time for recon but if I could see where the CCTV cameras were- would it help you hack them in any way?" He looked at Merlin and breathed out when he nodded.

"I have the coordinates of the building, if you get me access to one camera I'll be set". He could feel Harry smiling a little and mentally turned away from it. His head also grinned a little though so he had to refocus. "If Rosanna could record as much as she can without detection it would save time. There's only so much of CCTV that you can hear" If you magnified the volume too much you couldn't make it out. Eggsy's lips were quirking upwards when he spoke again

"I think I can hear a plan forming" He looked over at David and Rosanna looked away from them. 

Her godfather's pupils had dilated when Eggsy's eyes had locked onto him.

It was sweet but this probably wasn't the time for it.

Now to the plan. 

She refocused.


	15. Chapter 15

"If this gets me fucking killed I swear I'll haunt you" 

Rosanna pressed her back against the wall and tried to find where the main action was. 

"Shut it Eggsy, you just bragged about saving the world. Which if I remember correctly, you didn't go solo in." Merlin bit back another sentence and listened for Rosanna's bracelet.

"Ok, I'm going to zip around the whole place but I can't hear anything concentrated." She looked at where Eggsy was still sulking at Merlin's last sentence and tried not to snort a little. Harry checked with her; 

"You know what to say if you need us to get you out of there early?"

"Cerberus" 

Which coincidentally was what Charlie had named his dog. Who was ironically timid.

"Excellent" Merlin cut in to talk to her and she looked around for the CCTV cameras in order to get one off of the wall to enable Merlin to hack it. "I'm not seeing any and but I think I can guess where Hiralt and his daughter are."

"Report that to Eggsy and keep moving" 

"I just went silent cause I was nodding. Where's Eggsy?" Rosanna flinched at Merlin's swearing and tried not to let her heart get more audible.

"He says he's in a corridor full of dead people already" The exasperation leaked into Merlin's voice but he wasn't restraining it. "It's all right, he killed them. Don't worry"

"Thank god..." Rosanna spotted one and looked around for a plausible improvised foothold. "Merlin, how do I get up to it?" If there wasn't any foothold this could go south embarrassingly quickly. She listed what was there which included a flat wall and nothing else. No guarding chair, nothing helpful. "I need Eggsy to get me a foothold. Or even get here once he's hopefully done saving Hiralt"

The thing about that was that Hiralt could be anywhere and Eggsy had to leave someone alive to find out where. He also had to restrain the guy and learn who had had the chip embedded in wherever they went.

"You have got to be taking the piss!"

They went into the jugular and sprayed you with blood when you tried to dig them out. Rosanna grimaced. Of course they did. You wouldn't exactly want people able to examine them on taking them out. It was rank but it was smart, you had to admit that. Rosanna kept on fighting for a foothold and ran back from it. This was either going to work or give her major injuries but she was used to those. She ran quickly along the shadows and jumped at the calculated moment. It left her hanging on to the camera above the ground but goal partly achieved. She kept her hands around it and did the splits to keep her feet placed solidly. Rosanna shuffled further down and gripped the back of it, then snapped her feet together and wrenched it free. Her legs and feet screamed at her on landing, as you'd expect. She held the camera in both arms like a child's stuffed toy and pressed her back to the wall again while regulating her breathing. The adrenaline was still harrowing it when she heard the click.

"Oh goooood!" Rosanna whined it and then heard another. "Well this is just great-"

Oh god. 

She kept her voice even then let it break. One in front, and him behind, she might be able to take that, but play it safe...

"EGGSY! CERBERUS! Cerberus, Cerberus, BLOODY CERBERUS!" She was screaming not shouting but kept the camera near her chest. If she ran one way she was doomed. The other, also doomed. Oh shit... "Well this could be interesting but CERBERUS!"

Eggsy ran towards her channel and begged James Hiralt to stick to the shadows. 

"Fuck it, I'm no one's damsel..."

Rosanna's voice changed and she looked at Eggsy's face before mouthing.

"I'm sorry" 

Let the Hunger Games begin.


	16. Chapter 16

“I’m sorry”

Let the Hunger Games begin.

And Jesus. Christ. They began. 

There honestly wasn’t a lot you didn’t see in his line of work. For god’s sake, they turned umbrellas into weaponry. Rosanna was on a new level, like an extremely bloody contortionist. Throats and jaws were slit, crowned jewels were stabbed, lights were punched out and heads were pulled so far back that necks snapped. She kept going though until Eggsy wanted to gaslight himself into thinking he hadn’t seen it. Rosanna looked at him and slammed her foot down while shooting a cornea. Two ribs cracked and she kicked down the throat. He had to pull her away to stop her traumatising herself.

“Jesus Christ what the fuck was that bruv?!” 

The corpses didn’t stare back at him. They were too dehumanised to.

Eggsy stared at her and Rosanna turned back and vomited.

He held her hair out of the way as she threw her guts up for the fifth or sixth time since he’d known her. She threw up at what she’d dished out. 

“What was that? Rozzy, what just happened? You can tell me, yeah?”

“I honestly don’t know” 

She sounded revolted but not scared of herself. She kept hold of the camera and pulled it closer to her before following Eggsy out with James Hiralt in tow while Olenna berated him for whatever the crap he had gotten them into. Merlin sat with his fingers over the keyboard and stated the obvious. 

“That can’t be normal for a teenager” He heard the anger rise like bile in Harry’s throat

“Why would she have to know that at fifteen?” Time to check out more of her past and be disturbed by it. Merlin watched David waiting for them until Eggsy and Rosanna got there. He was pacing up and down, as is the usual pattern, and his forehead was twitching enough to make his hair move. He kept on checking for updates from either on their location. 

“They’re right outside the door now so move. It swings in” Merlin knocked Harry’s elbow when he got up and looked back at him when his mouth opened.

“Would you mind… just calling me Harry… all the time? I’m not quite sure what set me onto that thought track” With how scandalous it was!

“Sure Harry. Just… fell into an old practice” Calling him Galahad even on unauthorised missions, just became force of habit but it wasn’t a forceful one. That didn’t make sense but they didn’t think out loud so it was fine.

“You alright bruv?” Eggsy leaned back a little when David pulled him into a family hug with Rosanna. 

“Thank you for pulling her away from herself, it’s… it’s quite brave… when she’s like that…” David cleared his throat. “Thank you”

Thank you for not shooting me the first time we met. 

Is what leapt to mind. What came out was thankfully different.

“It’s alright bruv” Eggsy looked at him and David had turned to look back at their elders. Not that they would respect being called that at all.

Rosanna just wondered how many pauses she had just witnessed... 

She turned to face the Hiralt duo and gestured to two chairs.


End file.
